More Solid Proof That Obamacare Is Working

[Lost-in-FL]

Recent data provided by the nation’s largest health insurance companies reveals that a provision of the Affordable Care Act – or Obamacare – is bringing big numbers of the uninsured into the health care insurance system.

And they are precisely the uninsured that we want– the young people who tend not to get sick.

The provision of the law that permits young adults under 26, long the largest uninsured demographic in the country, to remain on their parents’ health insurance program resulted in at least 600,000 newly insured Americans during the first quarter of 2011. <...>

<...> Because the under 26 crowd tends not to get sick, adding them to the insurance pools helps bring the very balance that was intended by the new law. The more healthy people available to pay for those in the pool who are ill (translation- the older people), the better the system works and the lower our premium charges should go.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/05/23/more-solid-proof-that-obamacare-is-working/

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At least something is positive.

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. K&R

:kick:

[bluestateguy]

2. It will take 10 years before we know if it was a good law

All laws, even good laws, generate unintended consequences at some point down the road.

And the possibility that the individual mandate may be KO'd will have to be planned for as well.

[Mr Deltoid]

3. Tomorrow I start interferon treatment for Hep C

The co-pay on just one of the three drugs is $24,000, because I have a 50% co-pay and Incivek it a new tier 1 drug.

No Obamacare for me apparently :(

[Inuca]

7. Did you check if you can get some help with this?

I have an acquaintance that went through the same thing a few years ago, very little money, but somehow she manages to get the interferon for free or very close to it. I lost touch with her, so I cannot contact her for details. She lived in NYC, but I don't think it was a city thing.

[Fruittree]

15. I have a friend who is also on an expensive drug and

she applied for help and got it from the manufacturer. Granted it shouldn't be like that but you have to use what you can..

[truedelphi]

8. Oh Mr Deltoid, I hear you.

That is so awful.

And having voted for a man who ran a campaign during October 2008, as being for a Public Option, and he seemed so sincere, I wish we hadn't been stuck with someone who, as it turns out, works for Big Insurers and Big Pharma.

I so hoped by voting for Obama that I wouldn't hear stories like yours.

We lost our life savings when M. was misdiagnosed and a whole bunch of stuff happened on account of that. That was in 2005. I sincerely wanted to live in a world where no one in the US suffers because our politicians couldn't get it together and give our nation what people in every other nation, have Universal Single Payer HC. Or something damn close.

Hang in there.

[Mr Deltoid]

19. The really sad part is that we HAVE INSURANCE!

We have had insurance for decades but since 2000 our coverage has slowly dwindled down. We have some help with the co-pays from a non profit called, 'Patient Access Network.'

[truedelphi]

20. Yep the world of American health insurance and American health care is

Pathetic.

There is something very wrong with our entire political system.

Oh, and one thing about hepatitis - it is a contagion. An epidemic. Yet people complaining of the exact text book symptoms of the disease often end up getting tested,e extensively, for everything else under the sun. And at great expense, for various cancers.

And they get a "Clean Bill Of Health." There is not overall screening for the disease, despite it being at epidemic levels.

Why is that?

A friend of ours only found out he had it because he volunteered some blood at a blood bank, and luckily for him, they tested his blood and sent him a notification that he was infected with hepatitis. (Forget if it was A, B or C.)

But that's crazy isn't it? That they know this disease is out there, spreading like wild fire. And is often attributed to something a person did decades earlier. So why are the health professionals not insisting on doing that test first?

[eridani]

4. Too bad that 80% of those declaring bankruptcy due to health care costs

--HAVE INSURANCE!! Not that healthy young people will notice or care about that, because they are unlikely to be expensively sick.

[truedelphi]

10. And many people go bankrupt, without having the funds to actually

be able to "officially, legally" put themselves into that class of people. It takes between $ 700 and 10K to do a bankruptcy legal filing. I have to wonder what the true numbers of medical "bankruptcies" would be if everyone was included who experienced such.

[Myrina]

5. Oh yes because God knows I can AFFORD the additional premiums ...

... that would come along with putting my 21 year old on my plan. :eyes:

I pay $100/mo now for single coverage with a $2500 deductible and 20% copay. I've been told I need a hysterectomy and that my Achilles is about to blow but I don't have a spare $2500 sitting around to cough up before they'll schedule the appointment.

Double that premium and deductible? Gee, thanks Mr. President :spank:

[NorthCarolina]

6. Hasn't helped us, still uninsured...

but for the under 26 crowd...like you said, at least something is positive.

[yurbud]

9. Honest question: does Obamacare do anything to control premium prices for the rest of us

who already have insurance?

[great white snark]

11. Honest reply: why use the RW term "Obamacare?"

It's Health Care Reform or HCR.

[Lost-in-FL]

12. Because is the "Forbes" magazine.

Go figure. :eyes:

[yurbud]

14. if the public perceives it as a good deal, Dems should WANT it to be called Obamacare

[eridani]

18. I think that Obama has said he doesn't mind, because the term conveys the message

"Obama cares." A reasonable point, I think.

[YvonneCa]

23. No such thing as 'Obamacare.' It's called 'The Affordable Care Act.' n/t

[Dokkie]

13. Not just insurance premuims

How about the cost of medical treatment? Healthcare cost is fast out pacing inflation and this recession couldn't even slow it down. Medical cost needs to be addressed or else premiums wouldn't go down

[Hoyt]

22. Actually it will in 2014, if it lasts. 80 to 85% of premiums have to be paid out as benefits, and

The Exchanges will put pressure on companies to be more competitive because now, you and I can move to less expensive insurers without having to worry about pre-existing conditions. I'd still prefer a single payer, or public options, but that'll come (at least a public option).

[Prism]

16. The article is misleading or misinformed.

Yes, it's true young people will now latch onto their parents' health insurance. More people insured is always a good thing. However, what the author either ignores (or is unaware of) is that children on a parent's insurance policy do not pay the same kinds of fees and premiums that an independent individual does. Because of this, the "balancing the pool" effect is vastly overstated by the author. The healthy balancing the unhealthy only works if the healthy are paying comparable sums of money into the system.

Children on a parent's policy do not do this.

In addition, all these youth on the rolls should, in theory, reduce premiums across the system. Guess what is not happening. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Furthermore, this ignores the heart of the problem of HCR - insurance is not care. Currently, the demographic targeted in this article also have the most appalling employment numbers in the country. I believe I saw mentioned just yesterday that 51% of individuals between 16-24 are unemployed. How are they going to make the co-pays and deductibles when they need care? They may be on their parents' policy, but that doesn't mean they can afford care once they need it.

Insurance is not care.

We need healthcare, not just insurance. It's the giant point missed in the entire debate. Well, not missed. Purposefully ignored.

[Imajika]

17. You are correct...

You could look at that article right away and see what is clearly wrong with it. Children (even up to age 26) being added to an Employee + Child or Family policy are not charged anywhere close to the full amount of a regular policy holder under most insurance plans.

[Honeycombe8]

21. YOu say that 51% of 16-24 age group is unemployed...but how many in that age group...

are normally employed? I believe that most of the ones in that age group that are on their parents' policies are students.

I disagree that their premiums being less than individual policies makes a big difference. It is the fact that they are on the rolls and the ins. company does NOT have to pay out large claims, so that the co. gets a clear profit, is the main thing. No policy for someone in that age group who is healthy would cost much, anyway.

Second, if and when the kid does need care, the parents probably are springing for the copay and deductible, just like it's the parents who are paying for the policy.

It would be better if we had universal coverage here like they have in Mexico. But we don't, and I don't see that ever happening. But if universal coverage is so great...why do millions risk their lives to get away from it in Mexico?